Silencer cuffs [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczN_XovpLZZczG_oJKWLdwEIsIvEWUf3_AANkp2TJUDjhviJIzWOcQsPu-NzQQalNAfHwypGFi4pnyVBA0gz0jdz987PWN7ZY0EJAOF8OGtoy4eCNPzllSGN8fiCbKmT0mNf7iccPmaKFiw46xb9uTPk=w639-h958-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Unlike the others, Phoenix was used to waking up in unfamiliar locations now and had thought quickly, recognizing the sensation of the Chains of Silence which felt stronger than she remembered.
The first thing she had tried was removing the thing with the barrette key she had crafted long ago after Murinah had used one on her. To her dismay, it didn’t work, leading her to believe that either the key broke or the Silencer was a higher Caste. She hadn’t thought to make new ones after ascending, and she cursed her complacency.
She had been relieved to see that everyone else was still alive when she came to. Distress made her heart race, however, when she saw that Saiya and Uriel had also been captured, and therefore, nobody knew where they were. She also had no idea why Camilla and Padma were there with them, too.
Phoenix had thought she was being clever in trying to taunt their captor into killing her, hoping to return with help, but it had backfired spectacularly, resulting in the death of her friend’s Familiar. Even if she rarely gave a thought to the poorly labeled Seagull, Saiya had seemed attached to the adorable furry feathered creature.
The utter anguish that Saiya seemed to be in hurt worse than any sword cut or monster bite, and it was entirely her fault. If she had just listened to Saiya’s words, Snowbelle might still be alive.
Now, it looked like Uriel would be next as their captor yelled at him to comply with the orders. It was difficult to see past Camilla, but she managed to see and hear enough to realize that the past was threatening to overwhelm the poor mage. Then he took off his bracer, and the secret they had all feared getting out was now known to their enemies.
Luckily, it seemed their captor wasn’t going to push the issue there, simply taking back the red tunic and leaving with the rest of their belongings, including Saiya’s clothing that had been wrapped around Snowbelle but not the Familiar herself.
It was hard for Phoenix to look away from the still form still bleeding out on the stone ground. Flashes of memories of belly rubs and sweet treats raced through her mind, of Snow and Tala snuggled together to sleep.
Then, the red-stained feathers began to slowly disintegrate into pale blue ash.
“What’s happening to Snowbelle?” she asked the room in a mild panic, “I swear I didn’t loot her.” She knew that most avals and Casters didn’t turn to ash that fast unless a power triggered it, like her looting or Uriel’s [Raging Inferno] Talent that would consume corpses for fuel.
“She’s a Familiar,” Uriel said with a trembling voice, his broken earrings obviously not doing their job very well, “Their souls cross the Veil faster than others. Returning to Limina to become Familiars once again.”
“But she was a bonded Familiar,” Phoenix pointed out, “Not a summon like Tala, Rex, or Fen.”
“She’ll become the summoned kind now,” Uriel explained, “Familiars trade their agency for this form of immortality in the hopes that they’ll reach Obsidian someday since they’ll have an eternity to try.”
“So Snowbelle can come back?” she asked hopefully.
“No,” Saiya muttered, “My ability only lets me bond living avals or monsters… I can’t summon her back… I— I’ll never see her again.”
The sorrow in her friend’s voice made her heartbreak, and she tried to apologize for her mistake, “Saiya… I… I’m sor—” Phoenix began, but Saiya cut her off.
“No, Phoenix. It’s not your fault,” she said with soft resignation, then paused and clarified, “Not entirely, at least.”
The tear-stained face locked eyes with her as Saiya spoke slowly, as though trying to control her breathing to not begin crying again, “You should have listened to my warning because I recognized exactly what kind of person he was,” she shook her head, her ears still drooped in sorrow, “But the kind of person he is… that’s exactly why it’s not your fault. I think he’s going to kill us all anyway. Killing Sno—”
Saiya’s voice broke, and she took a moment to press her eyes against her furred palms before saying calmly, “I think killing Snowbelle was like a taste test. He wanted to see what flavors of torment he could expect from us.”
“He’s a sadistic bastard,” Dazien said coldly, “They all are. Cannibals that worship the god of madness.”
Saiya just nodded before falling silent again as the others joined her in mournful contemplation. Rayna was still hugging her sister as well as she could with two sets of bars between them, but her sister needed the comfort. Camilla had moved closer towards Phoenix’s cage on her left, and she had obliged the older women by moving closer in response but didn’t offer the same physical comfort; the proximity was enough.
Phoenix glanced at her brooding brother who had been dressed in white, unlike her gray. Hesitantly, she said, “Daze… about your mom…”
“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” he replied sharply through gritted teeth.
“Are you certain that was her?” Rayna asked.
Dazien leveled a glare at her as he said, “I know it’s been sixteen years, but I recognized my mother’s voice. It—” he paused, looking down into his lap for a moment as if collecting himself before muttering, “It was her.”
“Does anyone know where you all are?” Padma asked, finally speaking up. “Was this a mission? Camilla didn’t explain much to me, just that she knew you were in trouble.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The Defender’s head snapped up to look at the runeforged, “Camilla knew? How?”
“I— um, I got a letter warning me,” the shivering researcher said after a moment of silence.
“She was in such a tizzy that I didn’t think to get others to join us,” Padma continued, “I don’t think anyone knows where she and I are, but I was meant to meet with Patric and the rest of our party later for our shift as part of the Wall Response. I’m sure they’ll wonder when I don’t show.”
“Our mission gave us two days to investigate this place,” Dazien informed, “I doubt anyone will look for us before that.”
“I was supposed to meet Knight Thevaris again later tonight,” Everin added, “I’m not sure if they’ll come looking for me, though. They may just assume I got caught up in something and couldn’t make it.”
“So what do we do now?” Phoenix asked the room, hoping for possible ideas to come up with a solution to their current problem.
Everin spoke up again, seeming to at least outwardly handle their situation a bit better than the others, as he said, “Unfortunately, I am Oathbound to secrecy; otherwise, I might suggest the obvious talent in the room.”
When half of them gave him a confused look, Uriel explained softly, “He’s saying Phoenix should kill herself.”
The group stared at the two men at the end of the row and Camilla gave a gasp of horror as she scooted right up against the bars beside her. Phoenix was just surprised that he would reveal her secret to the newest member of their group of friends like that.
The Avatar gave them all a shrug and said, “I know none of us like it, but she’s escaped this kind of situation before by doing exactly that.”
“What?” the researcher said as she stared at Phoenix incredulously, looking away as soon as the Wayfarer lifted her own head to meet her eyes. “H-how is that p-possible?” Camilla asked nervously.
Phoenix gave a sigh, “I have a Natural Talent that lets me—”
“Teleport to safety before actually dying,” Dazien interjected firmly. He nodded towards the door in answer to her questioning gaze.
“How would that help us, though?” Padma asked.
“Well, I get sent back to a spot I marked before,” she explained, “Which would currently take me back to the World Tree.”
“Where you can bring help from,” Everin added, finally getting to his original point with the suggestion. “The Fae or Starfall voxen there could help. Not to mention your overprotective aunt. Did you know she threatened me after learning about taking you into the Soul Reaper’s ship to blow it up? I’m glad she finally knows you’re not so easily killed now.”
“Getting killed was what I was originally trying to do by provoking that evil arse,” Phoenix tried to explain, “But he didn’t take the bait… Snowbelle paid the price for that mistake…”
“House Wayland has the power alone to launch an assault on this place with the Casters it has under its command,” Dazien pointed out, catching on to their plan. “Aside from that, though, you have enough of a reputation built up that I’m certain Duke Tul would listen if House Wayland was fully mobilized by the city’s Saint and would offer his own aid to take out a sect of cannibals hunting in the city.”
“You want me to get the duke but not the AOA?” she asked with a raised brow.
Dazien’s gaze darkened, “The AOA sent us here, remember? I don’t believe we can trust them anymore.”
“But you can’t seriously be in support of this insane idea,” Rayna almost shouted at their leader. “We’ve told her over and over again to not waste her life! Even if she comes back, there’s a price, and we don’t know if there are other unseen consequences!”
“How is Rayna being the voice of discretion right now?” Phoenix muttered.
“Hey!” The bard replied in offense, “I know I’m not usually the cautious one,” she admitted a bit quieter after Saiya winced at her outburst, “But I’ve never suggested that you use your talent like a separate mana pool to be spent; like some kind of power exploitation!”
“Well, I’m all for a better plan!” Phoenix snapped back in her frustration.
They all fell silent again, each sitting in their cramped cells and thinking of different possibilities. Phoenix wasn’t even sure how she would be able to off herself in this situation. The only thing she could think of was trying to hang by the tunic she wore, but she didn’t need to breathe anymore, so that was pointless.
“How, um… how did you do it b-before?” Camilla’s hesitant question broke the silence once more, and Phoenix raised a brow.
“Do what?”
“Um… k-kill yourself to escape…”
“Oh,” she said, suddenly wondering if she had spoken her thoughts aloud but then figured they were all probably thinking of different ways to kill her —which was strangely both comforting and unsettling.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly the same situation,” Phoenix began recounting the story, “I had managed to get out of the Silencer but couldn’t escape the room with my portal. I used my sword —which I no longer have since it exploded during the first battle with the Soul Reapers.”
“Exploded?”
Phoenix tugged on her braid in embarrassment, “I kinda got eaten by a Marsh Walker and tried stabbing its mouth, missed, and it chomped down on my sword, which broke it, and the magic kinda went boom.”
“What?!”
----------------------------------------
“I’m sorry, did you say the cinderen boy was a Chosen of the Destroyer?” Lukas asked incredulously as he was helping preparations in the ritual harvesting room. They had a new green tunic to deal with, after all.
“Yeah, saw the Soul Mark hidden under a bracer,” Vas continued with a grin, “How much you think the DOD will pay for him?”
“A king’s ransom, most likely,” he replied thoughtfully, “I’m not sure we can afford to give him to them, though.”
“What?” his underling retorted with wide eyes, “It’s not like we can eat him instead! I heard the tale of the last Chosen Destroyer gettin’ murdered in her sleep. I ain’t dyin’ to that.”
“You’re right that we can’t kill him either,” Lukas said with a grimace, “But even if we trade with the DOD, I don’t like the idea of giving them that much power. If they learn about him, what’s to stop them from simply killing us and taking him? You and I might be Emerald now, but their High Priest is at the high end of that, and he has scores of Emeralds at his command along with a small army of Crystals and Sapphires. You want to let him know we have one of their Chosen?”
“Well, we can’t just keep him neither. We’re steppin’ in the domain of too many other gods now.”
Lukas gave a heavy sigh, “I know. I’m half surprised one of Hero’s clergy hasn’t shown up at our doorstep already with his Chosen here.”
“Probably spent too much Aetherius savin’ the city with the Saint,” Vas posited.
“Perhaps, but there’s a half dozen other gods invested in that Wayfarer,” he pointed out, “I’m sure one of them has sent a rescuer, which means we need to get them moving sooner rather than later.”
“But the blood moon—”
“I know,” Lukas growled, almost snapping the magical chalk in his hand he was drawing out the ritual diagram with, “I know the ships aren’t sailing yet, which means we just have to play it cautiously until we can offload. No more snatching Casters. We bunker down. With the four other red shirts we have in there, we can easily last the fortnight since we only need one every month or two to sustain.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Vas interjected, “Can I play a little game to choose which one we eat tomorrow?”
Lukas sighed again, wishing once more for a less sadistic underling but loyal cannibals were hard to come by, “Fine, just bring the green shirt to me first. Those tails will be worth more than their weight in Emerald Bits and help fund us for quite a while.”